Steve Stockman, who served two stints in the U.S. House of Representatives, spent part of Friday in federal court.

Stockman, a Tea Party favorite who courted controversy thorough two congressional terms, was brought into court Thursday shackled and handcuffed.

He is accused of conspiring to violate federal election laws during his last term in office. It's a felony that could send him to federal prison if he's convicted.

As Stockman stood before the judge Thursday afternoon, prosecutors alleged that the former Congressman had conspired with two former employees to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to his personal use.

According to the complaint, in 2011 Stockman set up a non-profit called Life Without Limits in Las Vegas. A single contributor donated $350,000 to the charity, which Stockman then allegedly funneled back to himself through donations made by his employees.

Stockman said he understood the charge. Judge Stephen Smith set bail at $25,000.

How far this will go I have no idea, but it would be rather rich for the guy who wanted to jail Obama to end up in decidedly substandard federal housing for a while...and lose his right to vote as a convicted felon in Texas.

Lady Justice may be blind, but she has an awfully good sense of smell to know when someone stinks.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been going to courthouses and arresting people in America illegally, sparking outrage from prosecutors and attorneys.

They worry such tactic will discourage undocumented immigrants from appearing in court to testify as witnesses for prosecutors.

Criminal defense lawyer Octavio Chaidez said his client is among those taken into custody by ICE agents, who arrested him at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Pasadena.

He said he had just finished a criminal court appearance with his client when four agents swooped in, confirmed his name and took his client away.

“It was very shocking because it occurred inside of a courthouse, and the reason for the detention had nothing to do with that proceeding,” recalled Chaidez, who would not say if his client has a criminal history.

Chaidez said he is among many attorneys and prosecutors who worry ICE arrests at courthouses will create enough fear of deportation among witnesses or victims of crimes to affect the outcomes of cases.

“They may refuse to contact the police. They may refuse to give testimony as a witness. They may refuse to show up in court, and that affects the entire system,” the attorney explained.

Again, the newly empowered ICE brownshirts are there to create an atmosphere of constant fear, fear of ICE agents around every corner, hiding in every public building or corner, waiting to arrest and deport people who have been living here in some cases for decades, working jobs, raising families and paying taxes.

Now they are the hunted.

The Bush era of "compassionate conservatism" is dead and buried. Conservatism now is white nationalism, with the power of the government used to preserve the American ethno-state against demography at a frightening price. These are people preparing for a war inside our own borders, folks, nudging forward the corrosion of legal, ethical, and social norms in order to take vicious, decisive action when the foundations finally crack.

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With Republicans controlling the House and Senate and the Trump Regime now in charge of the Executive, there's still a crumbling global economy imperiling the world, rising nationalism and deadly racism across Europe and Asia, a seemingly endless war against terror, a federal government nobody trusts or believes in, global climate change putting us on the brink of destruction and a Village media that barely does its job on even the best day.

Needless to say there's a lot of Stupid out there when we need solutions. Dangerous levels of Stupid.

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